System 200 Technology Overview

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© 2013 VCE Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

VBLOCK™ SYSTEM 200

TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW

Version 1.0

February 2013


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© 2013 VCE Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. 2

Copyright © 2013 VCE Company Inc. All Rights Reserved.

VCE believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to

change without notice.

THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION IS PROVIDED “ AS IS.” VCE MAKES NO

REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION IN

THIS PUBLICATION, AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR

MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.


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Contents

Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 4

Business Case ........................................................................................................................ 4

Solution .................................................................................................................................. 4

Scope ..................................................................................................................................... 5

Audience................................................................................................................................. 5

Feedback ................................................................................................................................ 5

Technology Overview .............................................................................................................. 6

Hardware ................................................................................................................................ 7

Software ................................................................................................................................. 8

Compute ................................................................................................................................. 8

Network .................................................................................................................................. 8

Storage ................................................................................................................................... 9

Virtualization ..........................................................................................................................10

Management ..........................................................................................................................11

Building-block platform ...........................................................................................................11

Specifications ........................................................................................................................12

Physical ..............................................................................................................................12

Power .................................................................................................................................12

Use cases ................................................................................................................................13

Manufacturing ........................................................................................................................13

SharePoint and Exchange for 5,000 users .............................................................................13

Advanced features ..................................................................................................................14

Systems management ...........................................................................................................14

Security .................................................................................................................................15

Data protection ......................................................................................................................15

VCE™ Support ......................................................................................................................16

Summary .................................................................................................................................17

Vblock™ Qualified Partners ...................................................................................................17

Next Steps .............................................................................................................................17


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Introduction

Business Case

Converged infrastructure represents a cultural shift in information technology (IT). Gone are the days

when the CIO focused on sourcing, deploying, managing, and supporting a data center with individual

components from a variety of vendors. Also gone are the countless hours devoted to stack integration,

application testing and validation, software and firmware updates, and workload and capacity

balancing. These developments increasingly allow IT departments to quickly and easily deploy

business-critical applications as a strategic partner in the business.

As the strategic and financial benefits of converged infrastructure become clear in larger enterprises,

midmarket companies and enterprises with distributed locations are now looking for similar

performance in a converged infrastructure solution that provides business value and predictable

performance in a right-sized footprint, without sacrificing the repeatability, standardization, andsimplified management of larger enterprise solutions. In the past, smaller converged infrastructure

deployments for midsized data centers and distributed locations were difficult and expensive to set up

and maintain. To be successful, a midsized converged infrastructure IT solution must support

applications and provide features typically found in larger converged infrastructure deployments that

are right-sized to meet space, capacity, and workload requirements:

Deliver core IT services like Microsoft Exchange for messaging, Microsoft SharePoint for

collaboration, VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), and core IT services, such as file,

print, and domain services

Offer standardized configurations that address a broad range of distributed and standalone

deployments with predictable performance and high availability

Provide improvements in capital and operating expenditures, with faster time-to-value

Arrive pre-designed with simplified systems management, security, and data protection

Solution

VCE's Vblock Systems family, the only suite of converged infrastructure systems based on a single

architecture, includes best-in-class components and is codified with best-practice-based repeatable

processes.

Vblock™ Systems are characterized by:

Streamlined configuration and ordering for single-source accountability of industry-leading

technologies

VCE Vision™ Intelligent Operations enables and simplifies converged operations by dynamically

informing existing data center management tools about Vblock Systems, providing a single-object

perspective on Vblock Systems and facilitating standardization

Validated configuration management, operations, and upgrades for easy management and

maintenance


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Built-in high availability for industry-best system uptime and reliability

Simplified support with single accountability for fastest time-to-resolution

The Vblock™ System 200 is a pre-defined variable configuration system that brings the power andbenefits of the Vblock Systems family into a value-focused solution for midsized data centers and

enterprise distributed locations. Leveraging the Vblock 200, companies can, for the first time, address

their capacity and workload requirements while still enjoying the repeatability, standardization, and

business results synonymous with the Vblock Systems family.

Right-sized to fit within a typical footprint, the Vblock 200 is the same architecture as larger Vblock

Systems in a value-focused solution pre-engineered for faster deployment. The system is specifically

priced and built to provide meet today’s enterprise-level IT demands in a pre-defined variable

configuration system configured for midsize deployments:

Sole and comprehensive data center IT infrastructure

Core mixed workloads as well as dedicated application deployments

Development and test environment and co-location datacenter support

Business application support including virtual desktops, SharePoint, Exchange, databases,

file/print and domain services

Business continuity and disaster recovery

Scope

This paper provides a high-level overview of the Vblock 200, with specific discussions about systems

management, security, data replication, and VCE™ Support.

Audience

Business decision makers in technical, financial, operational, line-of-business, and strategic positions

considering virtualized IT infrastructures in midsized and distributed location environments.

Feedback

To suggest documentation changes and provide feedback on this paper, send e-mail to

[email protected]. Include the name of this paper, the name of the topic to which your comment

applies, and your feedback.


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Technology Overview

The Vblock 200 is available in one model that is configurable to meet your current and future needs. All configurations are self-contained in a single cabinet for ease of deployment. There is no multi-

cabinet configuration.

Vblock 200 provides predictable metrics around business applications to address the unique customerrequirements of the midsized data center and enterprise remote locations with the right components:

Compute resources with the choice of CPUs and processor types

Input/output operations per second (IOPS) up to 10,000 that are well optimized for intensive I/O

workloads

Drives recovering more usable storage of up to 100 TB

VDI support for up to 450 users

Messaging support for up to 30,000 mailboxes

Collaboration work spaces for up to 4,000 SharePoint users


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Hardware

The Vblock 200 comes with the following hardware configurations:

Layer Item Configuration

Cabinet 42RU 1

Compute Cisco UCS C220 M3 Rack Servers 4 to 12, in one-server increments

Processor 1 to 2 Intel E5-2600 series, with three options:

E5-2680: 8 cores, 2.7 GHz, 130 w

E5-2650-L: 8 cores, 1.8 GHz, 70 w

E5-2643: 4 cores. 3.3 GHz, 130

Memory Five options:64, 96, 128, 192, and 256 GB

Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Card 1225 1, with dual-port 10 GB Ethernet

Network Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series Switches 1

Cisco Nexus 5548UP Switch 2, with 1/10 GB ports or 8 GB Fibre Channel

Storage EMC VNX 5300 Storage 1, with 2 X-blades

0 –2 3.5" disk array enclosures withmaximum 15 drives each

1 to 3 2.5" disk array enclosures withmaximum 25 drives each

14 to 105 drives (see Storage, Drivesupport and configurations for more details)


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Software

The Vblock 200 comes pre-configured with the following software:

Layer Software Version

Network Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switch Advanced

Storage VNX OS 2.1.1.14913

VNX Unisphere v1.6.1

VNX Connection Utility v1.6.1

VSI Plug-in 5.0

Virtualization VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus5.0

5.x

vCenter Standard 5.x

VMware Update Manager 5.x

SQL database Windows 2008 R2

Management VCE Logical AMP

Compute

The Cisco UCS C220 M3 Rack Server is a high-density, two-socket, one –rack unit rack-mount server

designed for performance and density over a wide range of business workloads. The enterprise-class

C220 server is an exceptional building block and entry point for UCS. The Vblock 200 is available with4 to 12 C220 Servers. Each C220 contains from 1 to 2 processors and one of five memory

configurations ranging from 64 to 256 GB.

Virtualized deployments require VMware ESXi server installation on the Vblock 200. VCE supports

bare metal deployments on the Vblock Systems 200 in compliance with the standard Vblock bare

metal support statement. Bare metal workloads require separate physical spindles, disk groups, and

pools.

Network

Cisco Catalyst 3750 v2 Series Switches

Catalyst 3750 switches are next-generation energy-efficient Layer 3 Fast Ethernet stackable switches.

The Catalyst 3750 consumes less power than its predecessors, and is an ideal access layer for

enterprise, retail, and branch environments. It helps increase productivity and protects your network

investment by providing a unified network for data, voice, and video.


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Cisco Nexus 5548UP Switch

Nexus 5548UP switches provide Ethernet and Fibre Channel connectivity:

Within Vblock Systems and between Vblock Systems and outside data centers

Between UCS rack servers, existing X-blades installed for unified storage, and VNX block storage

With the customer’s IP network and LAN/SAN backups

With the dedicated management Catalyst 3750

Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches

Nexus 1000V switches provide policy-based network connectivity within the vSphere environment to

allow consistent network provisioning from the virtual machine layer to the data center. Developed in

close collaboration with VMware, the Cisco Nexus 1000V Series is compatible with VMware vSphere,

vCenter, ESX and ESXi, and many other vSphere features. You can use the Cisco Nexus 1000VSeries to manage your virtual machine connectivity with confidence in the integrity of the server

virtualization infrastructure.

Storage

EMC VNX 5300

The EMC VNX family delivers industry-leading innovation and enterprise capabilities for file, block,

and object storage in a scalable, easy-to-use solution. This next-generation storage platform

combines powerful and flexible hardware with advanced efficiency, management, and protection

software to meet the demanding needs of today’s enterprises.

Protocol support

The EMC VNX 5300 in Vblock Systems 200 supports NFS and CIFS for unified file storage (within

and outside the Vblock System) and Fibre Channel for block storage.

Drive support and configurations

Vblock 200 supports two different disk array enclosures for three drive types and three RAID

protection strategies to support three storage tiering strategies—extreme performance, performance,

and capacity.

Vblock Systems 200 supports up to three 2.5" disk array enclosures for 25 EFD or SAS drives each,

and up to two 3.5" disk array enclosures for 15 NL-SAS drives each, for a maximum total of 105

drives.


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Drives are configured in RAID 1/0, 5, or 6 configurations. Each virtual pool can use a different RAID

type for each tier. See the following table for RAID types, configurations, and VCE/EMC best practices

for using each type.

Tier Drive type Drive size VCE/EMC RAID best practice for RAID

Extreme performance EFD 100/200 GB RAID 1/0 (4+4)

RAID 5 (4+1, 8+1)

Performance SAS 300/600/900 GB RAID 5 (4+1, 8+1)

Capacity NL-SAS 1/2/3 TB RAID 6 (6+2, 14+2)

Virtualization

VMware vSphere virtualization simplifies your IT footprint and maximizes utilization of the VblockSystem infrastructure. With it, you can allow multiple virtual machines to share the computing,

networking, and storage resources of a single physical machine. vSphere provides application

availability with built-in business continuity features, policy-based service level management, and

integrated network security and firewall protection.

The core components of VMware vSphere are the ESXi Hypervisor and vCenter server. Hypervisors

are deployed in cluster configurations. These clusters allow dynamic allocation of CPU, memory, and

storage resources, as well as workload mobility by using VMware vMotion and VMware Storage

vMotion.

The Vblock 200 includes a dedicated VMware vCenter instance, which allows you to clone VMs,

create templates, and configure the vSphere Distributed Resources Scheduler and VMware vSphere

High Availability (HA) clusters. Distributed Resource Scheduler continuously monitors utilizationacross vSphere servers and intelligently allocates available resources among virtual machines, which

aligns resources with needs, balances computing capacity, and reduces power consumption.

VCE supports the following VMware vCenter Server features:

VMware vSphere HA

VMware vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)

VMware vMotion and VMware Storage vMotion

Resource Pools

Storage DRS (capacity only)

Storage Driven Profiles (user-defined only)

VMware Syslog Service

VMware Core Dump Collector

VMware vCenter Web Services


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Management

The Advanced Management Pod (AMP), a key differentiator in the converged infrastructure space,

hosts all of the software used to manage the virtual infrastructure. The Vblock 200 uses a cost-

effective Logical AMP (LAMP), which resides in virtual machines on the Vblock 200 and hosts native

element managers for all Vblock 200 components. The LAMP includes:

Cisco Integrated Management Console for each Cisco UCS C220 Server, for direct server

management

EMC Unisphere for flexible, integrated VNX storage array management at the file and block level

Vblock Monitor for managing Vblock System components and sharing their performance metrics

with your network management system

VMware vSphere Client on an element manager VM, providing a single access point for all

management interfaces and the Vblock Monitor OS

Building-block platform

Vblock Systems are pre-defined in fixed configurations that are right-sized to meet a range of capacity,

workload, and space requirements, abstracting away the complexity of countless options while

tailoring a solution to your needs. All Vblock Systems are designed and built using best-of-breed

equipment from Cisco, EMC, and VMware:

Cisco C220 Servers

Cisco 5300 and 3750 network switches

EMC VNX storage VMware vSphere


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Specifications

Physical

The following table provides specifications for Vblock 200. These values are intended to be used as

an estimate and will vary based on individual configuration:

Dimension Value

Rack size 42RU

Height (inches) 79.75

Width (inches) 28

Depth (inches) 48

Weight (pounds) Minimum configuration: 899; maximum:1,494

Power (watts) Minimum configuration: 2,657; maximum: 9,177

Power

Power configurations are available for customers inside and outside of North America. Power outlet

units (POU) allow remote power management through a standard web browser, using a permanent IP

address for each POU.

Item North America Outside of North America Japan

Plug NEMA L6-30R IEC 60309, splashproof JIS C8303 L6-30P

Power specification Single-phase 30 A 208 V Single-phase 32 A 230 V Single-phase 30 A208 V

POUs per cabinet(activated in pairs asneeded)

4 4 4


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Use cases

Use cases for the Vblock 200 include:

Extending standard Line-of-Business applications from the enterprise data center, such as

Exchange for Messaging, VDI, Collaboration using Microsoft SharePoint or Cisco’s Unified

Communications, as well as small database support and web/file sharing, domain services and

print servers.

VCE provides a more predictable performance and operational envelope through extensive

testing and validation of line-of-business applications and solutions for the above application.

The Vblock system 200 can also function as the sole core IT infrastructure for a midsized data

center or co-lo data center, as well as an IT development and test environment.

Manufacturing

Situation

The customer has multiple global facilities where 24x7 operations is critical for services as factories

cannot stop because of infrastructure downtime. The customer also needed to standardize the

infrastructure in each factory—requiring it to be fast and easy to deploy, easy to manage, and using

minimal space in each data center.

Solution

The solution consists of two Vblock Systems 200 replicated using VPLEX. The Vblock 200 provided

the best performance with minimum space in data center, and simplicity and speed in the delivery.

Together with VPLEX, the solution has maximum reliability because of HA between two data centers.

Business benefits

Fast deployment in each data center minimized the time to start the infrastructure in each factory.

The configuration was easily repeatable for every factory, simplifying the time needed for new

designs.

Standardization in designs saved time and efforts in management for a distributed environment

with several factories geographically dispersed.

SharePoint and Exchange for 5,000 users

The Vblock™ Solution for a 5,000 Deployment of Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SharePoint on

Vblock™ Systems 200 (go to www.vce.com) describes and validates the virtualization and unified

management technologies for easily installing, configuring, and managing a mixed application

workload running Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SharePoint for 5,000 users, with performance

indicators well within Microsoft standards. This solution also shared VCE design considerations for

cost-effective sizing and scaling. With this validated solution, customers can optimize their IT

infrastructure and quickly deploy valuable Exchange and SharePoint resources in a high-performing

and secure environment.

http://www.vce.com/http://www.vce.com/http://www.vce.com/http://www.vce.com/


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Advanced features

Systems management

VCE Vision™ Intelligent Operations enables and simplifies converged operations. The software acts

as a mediation layer between Vblock Systems and existing data center management tools,

dynamically informing those tools about Vblock Systems. It delivers intelligent discovery to provide a

single-object perspective on Vblock systems. Comprehensive awareness of the industry-leading

components that comprise Vblock Systems promotes infrastructure standardization through

automated validation and system assurance. And integration capabilities make it possible to provide

this level of intelligence to any toolset. The software has native integration with key management

products from VMware, and supports API-enabled integration into other standard industry tools.

VCE Vision™ software has six new software capabilities for Vblock systems:

Discovery: Ensuring management tools constantly reflect the most current state of Vblock stems

Identification: Enabling the converged system view

Validation: Providing system assurance.

Health monitoring: Expediting diagnosis and remediation

Logging: Promoting rapid troubleshooting

Open API: Simplifying integration

The software is delivered pre-installed on all new Vblock Systems, and includes:

The VCE Vision™ System Library that runs on all Vblock Systems to implement core functionalityincluding the discovery, compliance, and object models

A plug-in for vCenter and an adapter for vCenter Operations Manager that enable native

integration with these two key components of the VMware management toolset

A software development kit, which includes the API documentation, sample code, Java bindings

and a simulator, as well as an online developer community to help foster innovation


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Security

Enterprises large and small are moving quickly to take advantage of the financial and operational

efficiency of virtualized, cloud infrastructures. The adoption of cloud technologies has created a new,

dynamic security landscape that IT organizations must now manage while integrating existing risk

management policies. Vblock Systems support compliance with common industry and government

standards, before and after installation. VCE follows industry best practices to maximize out-of-the-

box security while minimizing operational impact by applying hardening standards in the following

areas:

ESXi host hardening

- Configuring remote syslog

- Configuring NTP time synchronization

- Enabling the ESXi firewall

Securing virtual machines

- SQL database server

- vCenter Server

- vCenter Update Manager

Securing the virtual network

Data protection

Today, many organizations have geographically dispersed sites that locally create, process, and store

data. Loss of data at any site could result in economic loss for the organization and must becontinually pr otected to ensure the organization functions smoothly. Protecting the organization’s data

assets for business continuity, governance, compliance, and security is fast becoming a high priority.

In the past, organizations have struggled to manage tape backups for data protection. Tape backups

are slow, failure-prone, vulnerable to loss, and require offsite storage to be safe from natural disasters,

security breaches, or sabotage. Further, with the rise in data demands, tape backups are increasingly

time-consuming and expensive, and incremental backup strategies to address these problems make

restoration difficult and time-consuming. Customers consolidating their IT infrastructure need a data

protection strategy that is quick, affordable, and easily managed from central and local sites.

Data protection is a critical element of the comprehensive effort for developing the Vblock Systems.

VCE’s preferred data protection methodologies leverage proven, industry-leading components from

EMC and VMware that are integrated into a seamless solution from VCE. The VCE data protection

strategy encompasses three main tenants:

Simplified data protection in a virtualized environment

Complete end-to-end data protection covering all aspects from the Vblock Systems infrastructure

to customer workloads

Flexible, state-of-the-art data protection for new deployments, along with preserving legacy data

protection system investments


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Data protection on Vblock Systems is pre-architected, easy to deploy, and easy to manage.

Deduplication allows you to perform full backups in a fraction of the time required by traditional backup

solutions, facilitating remote backups over your existing network within tight backup windows with

headroom for future growth. Tight integration with vCenter and backup agents for applications likeMicrosoft Exchange and Microsoft SharePoint provide backup and restore options that optimize

servers and ensure faster application-consistent recovery.

VCE™ Support

VCE Support complements the strategy of deploying a converged infrastructure solution with a

support experience that dramatically simplifies the support process while proactively identifying and

resolving issues. VCE Support ensures the coordination of technical support resources spanning all

aspects of Vblock Systems, including the proper functioning and integration of components from

Cisco, EMC, and VMware.

The VCE Support portfolio provides customers with flexibility in choosing the level of support that bestaligns with their business objectives. The entry point for Vblock Systems includes VCE™ Core

Support. Customers have the option of upgrading to VCE™ Plus Support or VCE™ Premier Support

for an additional fee:

VCE Core Support

24x7 support through VCEConnect

VNXe Unisphere self-service capabilities

Dial-home support provided by EMC and Cisco

24x7x4 on-site parts replacement

Web access to customer installable software and firmware updates

VCE Plus Support

Designated Customer Advocate

Monthly service request review, analysis, and trending

Semiannual health check report, remote change support, operations review, entitlement review,

and contract gap analysis

Annual code currency planning and implementation

VCE Premier Support

Dedicated, high-touch Customer Advocate

Strategic support relationship

Weekly service request review, analysis, and trending

Semiannual health check report, and code currency planning and implementation

Quarterly remote change support, operations and entitlement reviews, and contract gap analysis


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Summary

Vblock System 2 00 brings enterprise performance and high availability to midsize data centers withconfigured systems suitable for supplying core IT services and business-critical applications with

existing staff and skillsets. Vblock Systems streamline configuration, ordering, and support with a

single point-of-contact for each. Vblock Systems are built on a consistent platform across the product

line with superior compute and network components from Cisco, storage components from EMC, and

virtualization software from VMware, making integration with larger Vblock Systems convenient and

easy. Vblock Systems help companies offer enterprise IT services at any scale.

Vblock™ Qualified Partners

Vblock Systems are primarily available from Vblock Qualified Partners, who:

Reduce delivery time from months to days with pre-engineered, tested, and validated solutionsthat reduce implementation costs and risk

Offer customers outstanding expertise, adaptability, and industry best practices in developing,

deploying, implementing, and supporting converged Infrastructure solutions

Deliver strategic, customized solutions faster by applying their intimate understanding of their

customer’s business and IT requirements to leverage the power of the Vblock Systems for

maximum performance and ROI.

Next Steps

To learn more about this and other solutions, contact a VCE representative or visit www.vce.com.

http://www.vce.com/http://www.vce.com/http://www.vce.com/


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ABOUT VCE

VCE, formed by Cisco and EMC with investments from VMware and Intel, accelerates the adoption of converged infrastructure and

cloud-based computing models that dramatically reduce the cost of IT while improving time to market for our customers. VCE,

through the Vblock Systems, delivers the industry's only fully integrated and fully virtualized cloud infrastructure system. VCE

solutions are available through an extensive partner network, and cover horizontal applications, vertical industry offerings, and

application development environments, allowing customers to focus on business innovation instead of integrating, validating, and

managing IT infrastructure.

For more information, go to http://www.vce.com.

Copyright © 2012 VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. Vblock and the VCE logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of VCE Company, LLC and/orits affiliates in the United States or other countries. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.

© 2012 VCE Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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